The District Chief Executive for Banda in the Bono region, Mr Emmanuel Akone, has paid courtesy calls on various Heads of Departments and Security services in the district.The visit forms part of the DCE’s familiarisation tour of the district.
His first point of call was on the District Education Director who expressed gratitude to the DCE and his team for the warm visit. He took the opportunity to brief the DCE on the various successes chalked in the education sector of the district.
He also enumerated a few challenges that need immediate attention and the steps his outfit has taken to reverse some of the negative developments such as teacher and pupil’s absenteeism, teenage pregnancy, fall in academic performance among others.
Similar calls were made to the heads of the Agric department, National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE), Ambulance Service, Commander of the District Immigration Service, District Police Commander, District Fire Service Commander and the National Disaster Management Organization.
The DCE, who was in the company of the District Coordinating Director, Internal Auditor, Deputy District Coordinating Director and other staff from the Assembly called for support from various heads to help him deliver on his mandate.
He reiterated his readiness to assist all the departments in any way he can to make their work easier and help the district to reach an expected level it deserves in terms of development.
The heads of departments also thanked the DCE for the timely visit and pledged their full support for his administration.
In another development, the Sunyani Municipal Chief Executive, Mr Ansu Kumi, has joined a group of researchers from the Crops Research Institute (CSIR) to inspect a Taro ( Colocasia esculenta) demonstration field set up by the Sunyani Municipal Agriculture Department and sponsored by the Modernising Agriculture (MAG) programme, in conjunction with the government of Ghana.
Taro crop is almost extinct due to factors such as the indiscriminate application of weedicides and the taro blight disease.
Taro is a multifaceted agricultural produce which can be used for a variety of local meals such as fufu, nuhuu, taro chips and many more, yet the aforementioned factors have almost rendered this important economic crop extinct.
As a result, the government of Ghana, through its Modernising Agricultural Agent from Canada and the ingenuity of CSIR, developed and raised the following suitable varieties to defeat the disease and other factors for farmers to realize the economic benefits of the crops.
The demonstration site, which is located at Mensakrom in the Yawhima Electoral area, within the municipality, saw interested farmers joining the team with the hope of venturing into Taro production.
The site was very swampy and flooded with the presence of the blight disease from the onset of the demonstration exercise, yet all the varieties are firm and being monitored until harvesting, to ascertain the veracity of the improved varieties including; CRI-Huogbelor, CRI-Asempa, CRI-Agyenkwa, CRI- Yen anyawoa.
The MCE expressed satisfaction with the project and pledged to support agriculture in the municipality.He also urged the farmers to take the observations seriously and do their best to bring back the almost extinct crop.
He maintained, “I am particularly very happy when it comes to agricultural activities because I am a son of farmers and so let us employ the modern ways as directed by our able officers in the department to maximize our economic benefits”.
“I trust many more demonstrations are being championed in the municipality and I intend to follow up and support the programmes in this field because agriculture is the way to go”, the MCE said.
The Team was led by the Municipal Agricultural Director, Mr Ofosu Dankyira, Dr Mahama of CSIR, Mr Isaac Agyei Mensah (Bono Regional extension Officer)
